"I planted Holy basil and regular basil this spring. The honeybees and several different bees, wasps and butterflies love it. Along with lots of green spiders. Unfortunately, I've only seen the green spiders eat beneficials." Thanks for mentioning the basil, it is another excellent bee plant for the vegetable garden. As for spiders... my observations mirror yours. Spiders are indiscriminate killers - and they are just as likely to kill beneficial insects as harmful ones. They are often listed as "beneficial", but I would rate them neutral at best. I've also had some nasty bites from spiders, and those bites heal slowly, so I don't have a great love for them. Fortunately, the wasp population in my property is very high - including mud daubers. Some of them hunt spiders, and do so very effectively... so the spider population in my garden is very low. Only those which spin webs at night & hide during the day escape the wasps, which suits me just fine. Never tried Murphy's Oil. I've used insecticidal soap, sometimes as part of the following recipe. It was contributed by Jimster several years ago, and is a great starting point for formulating your own insect sprays: INSECTICIDE: A U.S.D.A. formula combining oil and soap is effective in killing soft-bodied insects. Mix 1 cup peanut, safflower, corn, soybean, or sunflower oil with 1 tablespoon liquid dishwashing detergent. To make the spray, use 11/2 teaspoons of the oil-detergent mixture for each cup of water. As I mentioned above, I've tried several different variations of soap spray, sometimes with oil or alcohol. Since soap spray primarily works by blocking insect respiration, I even used sugar as an additive, when I was trying to kill cucumber beetles. Figured that would really clog their spiracles, and it seemed to help. Molasses might be even more effective, provided you can get it to dissolve. The advantage of using insecticidal soap (such as Safers) is that it is potassium based, and will cause less leaf damage. You can also use dish soap or baby shampoo, which is what I normally use. But in stronger concentrations (which may be required, depending upon what pest it will be applied to) there may be some leaf damage if the spray is allowed to remain on the leaves. Provided you are just targeting small areas, that is no big deal... but if spraying young plants, or covering a larger area (such as a squash bug infestation) then the spray should be washed off when it has done its work. Sucking insects die pretty quickly, you could rinse the leaves off after 15 minutes or so. For beetles, you just need to watch to see how effective the spray will be... it's possible a second spraying might be necessary. Beetle larvae are easier to kill than the adults, which can be remarkably resistant to soap spray... they will be temporarily paralyzed, but slowly recover. Cucumber beetles are a great example of this, they are pretty hard to kill. You really need full body coverage when spraying beetles, and a little alcohol in the mix will prevent them from flying away while you give them a good soaking. When trying out a soap spray the first time, observe its effect on the target insect. It's worth mentioning that while soap sprays have little to no no lingering toxic effect, they will kill most insects they are sprayed on. I've used the alcohol spray in my previous post to kill yellowjackets, it will knock them right out of the air. If bees or other beneficials get sprayed, it will kill them too.

As agility mom stated Phoenix local Dave Owens, "The Garden Guy," has a 2010 book out on this very subject specifically for the southwest: "The Garden Guy's Southwest Bug Guide." I find it frequently in the garden section of HD, Lowes, Ace, Walmart, Target and local nurseries. sales pitch: Organic gardening has been a lifetime passion for Dave Owens, The Garden Guy. He has written two best-selling books, "Extreme Gardening: How to Garden Organically in the Hostile Desert" and "The Garden Guy: A Seasonal Guide to Organic Gardening in the Desert Southwest." Like the Garden Guy's previous books, the "Southwest Bug Guide" is written with the Desert Southwest's hostile environment in mind, but the information and remedies are effective in any locale. This is an everyday gardener's manual to help identify and control pests the natural (organic) way. Not only keeping Mother Earth safe, but our homes, families, pets and wildlife. Let's all stop using toxic poisons that destroy our environment. ----------------------------- FN: The truth is Phoenix has few bug or disease problems---it is too dry. What is present eats a bit and then gets eaten. Or the eater turns into a beneficial. Either way it seems to me not worth bothering with unless it dramatically effects yield or wholesomeness/appearance of fruit. If it just eats some leaves can't we all just get along? Here is a link that might be useful: Amazon link to book

Charles, From what you are describing and I'm only taking a wild guess that you are dealing with Mealy Bugs. Are they fuzzy? Get a Q-tip swab and dip it in alcohol and dabb the bug with it and see if it turns from White to dark in color ( red, brown, etc etc. ). If there are too many to dabb one at a time then get a spray bottle and fill anywhere from 10% to 25% alcohol and the rest with water and spray the intire tree. Wipe the pot all around if it is in the pots. Do this a couple time in a week and they should be gone or put under control. I have never heard from anyone as for these bugs being harmful but they are feasting on your plants. Once again, I am only guessing they are Mealy Bugs just by what you are saying. Pictures will be much more helpful. Could be something else. Good luck, Rafed

I'm pretty sure that we're talking about apples and oranges (so to speak). Oil products mixed to dormant season strength are not the way to go for tender foliage, especially if exposed to cold or very warm temperatures. Nearly all of the oil products that I've ever used (including 'ol Volke Oil) have directions for summer mixing, and if directions are followed, can be used perfectly safely. ;-) It's important that our original poster read the complete label for dilution instructions. Also, though leaf miners are considered an irritating aesthetic issue on most crops, that is not always the case for citrus. They can cause serious leaf damage, enough to affect the overall vigor of the plant. Young plants can be affected dramatically.